Cape Town Art Fair: Art Talks

The Cape Town Art Fair is set to reshape the contemporary art landscape in the Mother City this week. It includes 40 notable galleries and more than 130 artists and includes an installation of new video works by some of SA’s most exciting contemporary artists.

26 Oct13:00 Urban Goes Pop with CNN Africa’s featured Artist: Khaya Witbooi / World Art15:00 The Power of the Auction: Strauss & Co - Emma Bedford17:00 Druid Walk: Willem BoshoffWillem Boshoff is a South African artist known primarily for his conceptual installations. He is one of South Africa's foremost contemporary artists and regularly exhibits nationally and internationally

27 Oct13:00 Art and Africa: Ashraf Jamal (editor of Art South Africa) and Brendon Bell-Roberts (Publisher of Art South Africa) discuss the new direction of Art South Africa magazine, Africas a creative hub and African art in international arenas.15:00 Lindeka Qampi documentary Life, Framed (see below)

Special screening

Life, Framed is Lindeka Qampi story, a remarkable woman who fell in love with her camera and transformed her life from living on the margins to the centre frame. Lindeka is a street photographer living in Khayelitsha Cape Town, documenting the lives of the people she encounters in vibrant colour and rich texture. South Africa has a strong tradition of Street Photographers, this 25 minute documentary places Lindeka’s work within that frame. Her enchanting images have been exhibited in Europe and Moma San Francisco. Her disarmingly warm and vibrant personality draws you in from the first frame. Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking presents the first of a series on South African photographers directed by Big Fish mentor, and award winning filmmaker Liz Fish, this series was made possible through NLDTF (Lotto)

Onsite gallery showcasing SA’s exciting video artists images Gary Cotterell, Khanyisile and naked inscriptionsWanted magazine curated by Gary Cottell will have an installation of new video works by some of SA’s top contemporary artists…. Mikhael Subotzky (Goodman Gallery), Haroon Gunn-Salie (Goodman Gallery), Khanyisile Mbongwe (Brendan & Gonsalves Gallery) and Cameron Platter (Whatiftheworld Gallery). Whether offering insights into a personal world, a critical eye or engaging the audience on a more participatory level, these artists are at the forefront of art creation. In addition we have the exciting work by Standard Bank Young artist Award winner 2014 Donna Kukama.

Strijdom Van Der Merwe- Land Artist- image strijdom image strijdomHis sculptural forms take shapes in relation to the landscape.It is a process of working with the natural world using sand, water,wood,rocks shaping these elements into geometrical forms that participating with their environment until their final probable destruction.With this in mind his next remarkable structure will be going up on Wednesday prior to the show.The piece will be made in his workshop in Stellenbosch and assembled at The Lookout venue over Wednesday and Thursday morning.The idea is that these bright red cubes will stand out against the blue and grey backdrop of the ocean and people can walk in and out, inbetween and through this extraordinary piece of art.This is not a piece of art to be looked at ...visitors are asked to interact with the work.

Invited curator Andrew Lamprecht curates Barend de Wet: “A Tangled Skein” use image barend de wet image barend circle knittingIn selecting and curating an exhibition of recent work by Barend de Wet as the invited artist for the inaugural Cape Town Art Fair I have been guided by several aspects that have long drawn me to his production. De Wet is in many ways one of the chief progenitors of many aspects of contemporary South African production, and particularly a generation of Cape Town-based artists who use the structures of the art world itself to gently critique it from within. He uses the conventional language of “Contemporary Art” (e.g. sculpture, two-dimensional work, installation, video and performance) but in another way it can truly be said that he lives his whole life as one continuous engagement with the practise of art. His practice is at once slick and slightly rough-around-the-edges. De Wet is a canny observer of the world around him and he reflects upon this in what he makes.

This exhibition focuses on a recent concern (or perhaps an obsession) with wool and the “craft-based” objects that are produced by means of this material. Moreover, he understands this material to be an extension of line, the basic tool of every artist, in every discipline. Thus his sculptures, “knitted paintings” and even performance, all using wool as a starting point, can be seen to be extensions of the act of drawing itself.In an South African art context which is in danger of becoming increasingly censorious (whether from outside of from artists themselves) and also in danger of parochialism, it gives me pleasure to present the work of an artist who is proudly South African, Cape Town-based, deeply aware of local conditions, but who also has his eyes on our place in the bigger world out there. I believe Barend de Wet shows us how our art is relevant in a wider sphere. Barend is also an artist who has been censored (before my very eyes) at another local art fair a few years back. I am particularly pleased that the Cape Town Art Fair has allowed him and I to “do our thing” with this exhibition.